I understand and agree. I feel most consumers donāt want the lego pieces, but rather the kit.
Smartthings main value asset is the hub, and the ability to control various sensors and devices to perform the automated tasks we ask from it.
If that UI and/or interface isnāt sound, then the value diminishes, and we will be encouraged to find another providers solution. For this reason, I feel that ST will need to work harder at integrating a fewer set of partners, and but doing well. If Ecobee, Ring/Arlo, Jasco/Aeotec/Lutron/ Linear, First Alert/Halo, Irlo, Hue/Osram, and ADT are those partners, then go all in and make sure those providers are integrated well.
It seems that ST is now becoming more disconnected from the mothership, which we all originally thought was great, but as they maintain the open door ecosystem, the more they are losing their stance in the industry. I still like their open approach, and donāt want this to be a Samsung only thing, but if that helps them overall, then maybe they should shift in this direction. Right now they are caught in the middle of all vendors, including Samsungās own products. Have you ever tried integrating a Samsung Powerbot Vacuum?
Also, remind me when Samsung talking about Smartthings, at CES 2018?
As a business, I bet ST has been losing more money than they make. Since their financials arenāt broken out, it is hard to tell, but I would bet very few users leverage their premium monthly service. I would also guess that they are trying to figure out a way to shift their revenue model from making most money from their hubs and even smaller sensor sales, to a model that licenses and brokers API amongst vendors.
Smartthings Cloud may be the first step to do this, but letās see. I donāt see myself jumping on the Bixy boat, but there are no definites in technology.
This all might not matter to Samsung, because they gain accessibility to more endpoints in everyoneās household.
There arenāt to many other standalone hub solutions that are making a killing, and the ones that are doing well, are being maintained by their community (Vera).
We may not see a breaking point this year, but I do feel this year will be a defining year for many IOT companies, and the overarching hub approach will not be the forefront, but rather the more closed loop ecosystem that @WB70 mentions.
In the meantime, I hope ST focuses on their clients more, and helps integrate into more of these kits, like Ring.
@NoWon I appreciate the suggestion. I also use RBoyās code to do this, but this lends to my point. Depending on your community to develop so much code isnāt sustainable for ST to grow their business. You can carry on doing this, but then you will look just like Vera. More and more manufacturers of devices arenāt opening up their APIs to allow others to build into their platform. Look at Nest, Haiku, iRobot, and others alike. Solid Nest integration didnāt happen until a year ago, and thi is due to the phenomenal work another community member wrote and continually develops.
I REALLY hope I am wrong about this, and I will continue being a supporter and user. Heck, I have too many third party sensors and switches not to. 